When Republicans took control of the House in January, among the changes they announced for the 112th Congress was a new calendar that would allow members to spend one week in their home districts for every two weeks they spent in Washington.

Democrats and Republicans exchanged competing deficit reduction plans Wednesday with the biggest partisan split less over spending per se and more the willingness to find some solution to the impasse over tax revenues.

Among the hundreds of deficit-cutting recommendations that poured into the 12-member supercommittee this month, one urged that new and current federal employees with less than five years of service get no defined-benefit pension.